The theme of "Detroit: Becoming Human" is near-future sci-fi.

In the real world, the development and change of technology and social forms are complementary to each other, just like the GPS positioning technology, which affects all aspects of people's lives and profoundly changes people's lifestyles.

If in the future world, there are black technologies such as neural connection, anti-gravity devices, controllable nuclear fusion, and ultra-long-distance teleportation, then any one of them may have earth-shaking changes in real life.

In a large number of black technologies, which one appears first and which one appears later may have a completely different impact on the real world, transforming the social structure into a completely different appearance.

The so-called "point crooked technology tree" is what it means.

Many movies and TV series with sci-fi elements are just new wine in old bottles, and the future created is completely unconvincing, because the technology tree is too crooked. For example, in a certain movie, a certain Kanda technology is so developed, but the social system is extremely backward, and in the face of alien invasion, the leader actually goes into battle to fight the enemy hand-to-hand, which inevitably makes people feel very absurd.

For a story, it doesn't matter if it's not rigorous, the key is to see what it wants to express and what the audience and players can experience.

From this point of view, the theme of "near-future science fiction" is a more controllable choice.

This kind of "near-future science fiction" means that in the next short period of time, a little progress in a certain technology will have an impact on human behavior and social form. While keeping the overall data unchanged, only a small variable is taken to explore some deep-seated social problems.

That's the case with Detroit: Human, which isn't technically a futuristic world, it's just a world that happens to have a skewed tech tree. Compared to the real world, the only technological leap is android technology, and nothing else has changed from the present. Transportation, Housing, Firearms...... are not much different from modern society.

This is exactly what this game is trying to explore: what impact artificial intelligence and android technology will have on our society once they appear.

Most people's doubts about this game mainly focus on two points.

First, why does this exacerbate social injustice?

Second, why does artificial intelligence have to be made to look like humans?

In fact, both of these points can be explained, which is a matter of opinion, but it cannot be said to be the flaw of this story.

First of all, the great leap in productivity does not mean the early arrival of communism. During the Industrial Revolution, many workers smashed machines because they thought they had taken their jobs, which was a real event in history. The leap in productivity and the emancipation of labor force do not mean that everyone can enjoy its fruits. Just as multinational corporations have grabbed a lot of profits, benefiting the top capitalists, while workers in developed countries are facing the dilemma of unemployment.

The reason why workers in the lighthouse countries are calling for the return of their jobs is that they are actually not living as well as they were in the sixties and seventies, when they only had one person to work to support a house and a car, but not anymore, because multinational companies have opened factories where labor is cheaper, and these workers are facing unemployment and living in a worse situation.

It is true that productivity has increased, but the direct beneficiaries are the top of large corporations, capitalists and politicians. For the middle class of society, it is indeed a good thing to be able to buy androids for a small amount of money, but for the bottom of society, androids will cause them to lose their jobs, which is also a very normal phenomenon.

For manual laborers, such as takeaway brothers, courier brothers, workers, salesmen, etc., if such cheap androids appear, they will inevitably lose their jobs. And what can they do when they lose their jobs?

As for pinning hopes on the social security system...... This is a more wishful thinking, the capitalists make a lot of money, and if you want to take money from them to feed the poor, will they be happy? The lighthouse country is a "rotten" capitalist country, with big business in control of politics, and you want to take money from the capitalists to build communism, you can't help but think a little too much.

As long as the poor do not rebel or revolutionize, and when social contradictions do not intensify to the extreme, they will not be willing to spend so much money to maintain social stability.

The time chosen for "Detroit: Human" is the time node when android technology suddenly appeared and rapidly changed society, and it can be said that the whole of Detroit is not fully prepared for this transformation, and all the chaos reflected in the game is actually the pain caused by the transformation.

Second, why does AI have to be human-like? Because the most understandable fantasy of human beings about artificial intelligence at this stage is human beings themselves.

Because human beings are the highest intelligent life we currently know, if there is some kind of intelligent life that is higher than human beings, such as the Trisolaran, then artificial intelligence may have to be made into the appearance of the Trisolar.

If there are two housekeeping robots for you to choose, one is the robot Wall-E, with tracks and robotic arms; The other is Miss Kala, which one do you choose?

Obviously, the latter represents a more advanced form of artificial intelligence, which is...... Exactly like a human, it's hard to tell.

Strictly speaking, "fully controllable AI" is inferior to "AI that is as uncontrollable as humans". If humanity were to develop the highest level of AI, it would almost certainly be uncontrollable, otherwise it would not deserve to be called "the most advanced AI".

Of course, one of the problems with "Detroit: Human" is that this world doesn't seem to have any pre-tech points for androids.

For example, Luthor was developed to carry heavy loads, Cara was used for domestic service, and there were female androids for special needs...... These androids should have been made a long time ago, because there is no need for such a high level of artificial intelligence, let alone to make their thinking the same as that of humans. Wouldn't it be better to be a professional robot for something like lifting heavy loads? Why be a big tall man with a black face?

For this point, you can say that it is a bit far-fetched, but it is still the same sentence, the near-future science fiction shows the future world of "distorting the technology tree", and you can fully understand that the people in this world just skipped the pre-technology and directly filled the technology points of the androids.

The loopholes in the setting are the choices that have to be made in order to tell a good story, and it's not the details that matter, but what the story wants to tell us and what we can learn from it.

It's a good story that touches people, and that's enough.